When Hoover Dam was built in the 1930s and vast Lake Mead was created, the construction came with a cost: the loss of historic Anasazi Native American sites. When one such treasure, Pueblo Grande de Nevada, was threatened, the National Park Service enlisted the Civilian Conservation Corps to excavate ancient artifacts. The CCC also helped to erect the adobe brick pueblo to house the trove—the Lost City Museum.

Built on the ruins of an actual pueblo, the museum displays tools and weapons made from bone, quartzite, chert, or obsidian; turquoise pendants and beads; and an extraordinary collection of Anasazi pottery, known for its distinctive, highly stylized designs. Visitors who stroll the grounds of the three-acre site enjoy an intriguing array of desert plants, many of them labeled.